A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life

About the book

After writing a successful memoir, Donald Miller's life stalled. During what should have been the height of his success, he found himself unwilling to get out of bed, avoiding responsibility, even questioning the meaning of life. But when two movie producers proposed turning his memoir into a movie, he found himself launched into a new story filled with risk, possibility, beauty, and meaning.

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years chronicles Miller's rare opportunity to edit his life into a great story, to reinvent himself so nobody shrugs their shoulders when the credits roll. Through heart-wrenching honesty and hilarious self-inspection, Donald Miller takes readers through the life that emerges when it turns from boring reality into meaningful narrative.

Miller goes from sleeping all day to riding his bike across America, from living in romantic daydreams to fearful encounters with love, from wasting his money to founding a nonprofit with a passionate cause. Guided by a host of outlandish but very real characters, Miller shows us how to get a second chance at life the first time around. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years is a rare celebration of the beauty of life.

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Reviews for Million Miles in a Thousand Years : What I Learned While ...

ebnelson

It took me about 200 pages for it to finally click, but when it did I realized what Miller had astutely crafted. Seeing our lives from the point of view of our storyteller, and putting ourselves in the business of story craft is a masterful stroke. It brings together so many ideas from suffering to Imago Dei, to spiritual direction. I wish he would have made the Romans 5 connection that suffering leads to perseverance, perseverance to character, and character to hope, but he connected all the dots up to that point. Having the perspective to see sub-stories and mini-climaxes within our lives proved to be one of the most helpful of ideas.It's not overtly Christian as, say, Searching for God Knows What, but the book, especially the end, is undeniably Christian--it's just Christianity without the filter of Evangelical piety, which as a member of a fundamentalist church, I say can be refreshing.Unfortunately, probably doesn't have the broad appeal Blue Like Jazz does, but its a great read, especially for avid readers of fiction and writers.read more

Although it often takes me a chapter or two to get used to Donald Miller's writing style, I find his work forthcoming and easy to read. This book - about living a better story - is a great way to jump start a new year. A year (2012) that I believe is going to be my best year yet!read more

Is life a series of random events or something more? Donald Miller gets an opportunity to edit his life when an earlier memoir Blue Like Jazz is being adapted as a movie. The same concepts he reveals can be applied to a movie, a book, or a life. We are acting out a story in which our actions are more important than our intentions or thoughts. A story involves a character who wants to attempt something difficult and overcomes conflict to do it.There is nothing new in those ideas. The real value of the book is how the author gets himself off the couch and actually does something about recreating the story of his life. His first efforts were small. Buying a bike and getting in shape. But as he achieved small successes, he increased his goals. Making a connection with the father who abandoned him. Riding his bike cross-country to raise money to build wells in Africa. He writes with humor and candor about the people he meets along the way and about the faith that sustains him. I like his approach in this book. It contains an important message, it's well written, and it doesn't preach. Donald Miller is a Christian who lets his life do his witnessing for him.read more

I have been reading Don Miller since his 'Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance' days. This is unequivocally his best book to date - and I loved 'Blue Like Jazz.'Miller has matured since BLJ as a writer, and it appears also as a person. I was simultaneously hopeful, humbled, and repentant while reading this bookread more

In Donald Miller’s A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life you will certainly find honesty if nothing else.It my policy to only promote edifying christian books. And although the book did herald the goodness and mercy of God and did encourage the reader to a better life, I cannot recommend this book as it does contain very inappropriate references.As a book reviewer for Thomas Nelson, I am required to review this book. It is my personal policy, however, to NOT disparage a writer or publisher.It is for this reason, I do not post reviews that discourage a reader to choose a book. Readers are certainly able to decide for themselves based on other reviewers posts whether they should read this book or not.read more